The committee sent Alameda County Judge Jon Tigar's nomination to the Senate floor on a unanimous voice vote and approved Justice Department lawyer William Orrick III by 12-6, with two Republicans joining the panel's Democratic members in support.

Their prospects for confirmation this year are uncertain, however. Republican leaders have recently objected to holding Senate votes on more than one judicial nominee per week, and there are 16 other U.S. District Court candidates awaiting floor votes, said Carl Tobias, a University of Richmond law professor who tracks judicial nominations.

The Senate went on recess Thursday until Sept. 10. If Tigar and Orrick are not confirmed before the November election, their prospects will probably depend on whether Obama wins a second term, Tobias said.

Tigar, 49, was appointed to the Superior Court by Gov. Gray Davis in 2002 after working as a private attorney and an assistant public defender in San Francisco. Orrick, 59, son of the late U.S. District Judge William Orrick, worked for a legal organization for the poor in Georgia and then spent 25 years with a corporate law firm in San Francisco before joining the Justice Department in 2009.

At Orrick's confirmation hearing last month, Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, described the nominee as a "big political operative" in Democratic circles and questioned him about his involvement in the Obama administration's suit to overturn Arizona's immigration law.

Orrick cited his diverse record as a lawyer and told Grassley that politics should play no role in the courtroom.